Analytics

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Post #7233 J

 Pandemic Report

The latest CDC weekly stats:



The national statistics continue to taper down since last winter's surge, but there are a couple of reasons for concern: one is that we sometimes see COVID spike over the approaching hot summer months, and the highly contagious NB.1.8.1, sweeping across SE Asia, is spreading through some coastal states (see several news items below). I tweeted out over the weekend I recently got my second updated shot over the last calendar year, being in a higher risk group. The GOP has been highly suspect of pro-vax policies, particularly for younger people and pregnant women, and we're seeing some blue state pushback against the anti-vaxxer RFK, Jr. HHS regime.

The latest COVID-related news items:

  • "In January, a new COVID-19 variant known as NB.1.8.1 was first detected in China. As of mid-May, the variant had reached 10.7% of global reported COVID-19 cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of May 27, less than 20 cases of NB.1.8.1 had been reported in the U.S."
  • "Moderna's new lower-dose COVID-19 vaccine approved by FDA" See 2 items down.
  • "Measles vaccination rates drop after COVID-19 pandemic in counties across the US"
  • "The FDA has approved Moderna's new COVID-19 shot, an mRNA vaccine, with some limits on who can get it. The vaccine, called mNexspike, is for people who’ve previously received a COVID-19 shot and is mainly intended for adults ages 65 and older."
  • "New AI tool revolutionizes forecasting of disease outbreaks"
  • "Podcast host Meghan McCain, the former co-host of “The View,” made headlines when she posted to social media recently in support of a “detox” supplement to be taken after Covid-19 vaccination or infection...Vaccine experts say that just isn’t true.The messenger RNA in Covid-19 vaccines instructs cells in the body to make a certain piece of the virus’ spike protein — the structure on the surface of the coronavirus"
  • "The Global Virus Network (GVN) is closely monitoring the emergence of a newly identified SARS-CoV-2 variant, NB.1.8.1, a sublineage of the Omicron family. This variant was first identified in January 2025 and has rapidly spread across Asia and into other regions, including parts of the United States...Similar to previous Omicron subvariants, NB.1.8.1 contains spike protein mutations associated with increased transmissibility. However, no evidence suggests that NB.1.8.1 causes more severe illness or significantly evades vaccine-induced or natural immunity."
  • "FBI Director Kash Patel announces potential ‘great breakthrough’ in COVID origins probe. Patel told podcaster Joe Rogan that the FBI originally couldn’t locate any of the devices Fauci used during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 — but they apparently turned up just days ago".

  • "The main coronavirus variant causing a new spread of the disease is known as NB.1.8.1. Cases caused by this variant have been reported in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Thailand, China and Hong Kong, among other countries. It is now the dominant variant in China and Hong Kong"
  •  "[WI] State health officials urge kids, pregnant women to get COVID-19 vaccine despite federal pullback"  
  • "An official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who oversaw the agency's recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines [Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos] has resigned, following a week of mixed messaging from federal health officials over who would be eligible for the shots.
  • "The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Thursday announced that the required interval between two COVID-19 vaccine doses for high-risk groups would be shortened from six months to two months, effective from Wednesday next week"
  • "If you are concerned about the risk of rare but serious side effects of vaccines such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, you should know that receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine does not appear to increase your risk, but infection with the virus does,” said Dr Jeff Kwong, senior author for the study based at ICES and the University of Toronto in Canada".
  •  "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's airport screening program has detected multiple cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, which has been linked to a large surge of the virusCases linked to the NB.1.8.1 variant have been reported in arriving international travelers at airports in California, Washington state, Virginia and the New York City area, according to records uploaded by the CDC's airport testing partner Ginkgo Bioworks. "
  • "Critical step in COVID-19 infection identified—how the virus shields itself during replication"
  • "Ohio deer samples reveal COVID-19 Alpha variant more than 1 year after last human case"
  • "Measles vaccination rates drop after COVID-19 pandemic in counties across the US"
  • "A dangerous new coronavirus discovered in China could spark the next pandemic, American scientists have warned. According to researchers from Washington State University, the new HKU5-CoV-2 virus is just one 'small' mutation away from being able to infect and cause outbreaks in humans."
  • "Long-COVID diagnoses fairly common in Medicare claims  "
  • "  US Researchers Develop New mRNA Vaccine To Fight Covid-19"                                         
  •   "HHS ends Biden-era COVID-19 testing program that bled taxpayers years after pandemic"
  •    "FDA grants limited approval to new Covid vaccine from Moderna. The agency approved the company's lower-dose Covid vaccine for older adults and young people with underlying medical conditions."
  • "Used in Covid Shots, mRNA May Help Rid the Body of H.I.V."
  •   Legal or political relevant topics continue:
  • COVID relief fraud and other crimes are getting prosecuted:
    • "Audit: Fraudsters Stole $79 Billion in COVID-19 Assistance With False Social Security Numbers"
    • "Colorado man pleads guilty to laundering $200,000 in COVID-19 relief funds"
    • "Feds paid $80 billion to bogus Social Security numbers during pandemic"
    • "Jacksonville woman pleads guilty to credit scheme, COVID-19 relief fraud involving Paycheck Protection Program"
    • "Kennewick man sentenced for Covid-19 fraud"

Other Notes

I am still experiencing dubiously high blog statistics although it seems my daily post views have slightly improved to double digits. On X/Twitter, my followers have hit a new high north of 100. I think a lot of that is my feed is swollen with Trumpkin rubbish. I think perhaps sometimes some leftists think because of my anti-Trumpkin views I may be leftist, too. LMAO.

One weird thing about my latest COVID jab was I scheduled it same day at my pharmacy but I never saw an interim text cancelling the appointment due to reportedly being out of stock. They in fact got a Moderna shipment that morning, The point is they should have checked stock before confirming the appointment. A second error was when I got messaged in the store about a prescription fill I didn't expect.

One of my gay nephews got married yesterday in Kansas. I would have attended but I've faced some medical and financial issues over the last 3 months. I'm no longer in rehab but I'm still getting follow-up home visits from nurses and therapists.

I've restocked a new refrigerator/freezer mostly via online grocery orders until Friday when I went on my first solo grocery trip to Lidl in months. I've experienced a few missing items like a bag of chicken legs/thighs and an incomplete order of linguine boxes, but the most puzzling issue was the substitution of inexpensive red grapes for cherries.

I had some apartment work done in my absence and some people I trusted literally disconnected all my electronics power cables. . I finally got my key monitor and computers up, but my cable modem's was missing, requiring a trip to my cable service storefront. I managed to get 2 external drives working. Luckily I have some cloud backups. One alternative to buying portable hard drives is to DIY with Amazon renewed drives plus a USB SATA drive enclosure; I've been able to essentially get a 12 TB drive up and running for about $150.

WWE has been interesting, especially since they finally turned John Cena heel in his retirement year. That being said, they've done a terrible job booking Cena since the turn. I'm also a yeet-hating opponent of Jey Uso gaining the world belt from Gunther. (Don't get me started on Dom Mysterio with the intercontinental belt.) But what was the story behind MITB  Cena/Paul and Rhodes/Uso tag team match, other than setting up Rhodes for a Cena rematch at SummerSlam? It resulted from Cena's unexplained attack on Uso. I have disliked gimmicky tag teams since  the first Wrestlemania. It never made sense to me why you didn't have Hogan defending his title. Watching Cena and egomaniac Paul quarrel was predictable but annoying. But one bright note was when they swerved us by the unexpected return of recently-waived R-Truth attacking Cena. (R-Truth segments are the most entertaining in WWE programming.) The MITB winners of Rollins and Naomi are good for storytelling.

Posted by at